


Renaissance

by MapleMooseMuffin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Ignoring s8 (as we do), Just some light hearted team bonding with a touch of tender sheiths, M/M, Post voltron, basically just me venting my feelings on s1-2 sheith, twitter thread fic I cleaned up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 10:00:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20890259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MapleMooseMuffin/pseuds/MapleMooseMuffin
Summary: After the war, Team Voltron reunites for a celebratory night together on the anniversary of the war's end. It's a time to rejoice, reconnect, and relax. So Hunk suggests they play a game."Truth or Dare, Keith?""Truth." Anything to end the ridiculous turn this game has taken."Oh." Hunk's face falls a little. He hums and thinks for a long moment, clearly thrown off. "Hmm. I'm not really good at this game, actually. Uhh. Okay, okay." His eyes light up. "How about, what was the best year of your life?"Lance snorts. "Come on, isn't that an obvious one?""What? No it's not.""It's gotta be the year we won the war, dude."Coran nods enthusiastically beside Hunk. "Of course, of course. After all, we still celebrate to this very day."Keith runs his fingers through Kosmo's mane and considers it, but it doesn't compare to the time that immediately came to mind when Hunk asked him. Nothing does.





	Renaissance

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends~
> 
> Look, sometimes you just gotta post a ficlet half-edited at 4am while procrastinating your work, and that's okay. Here's something quick and messy born from a twitter fic thread and inspired by my obsession with early sheith. What an intense time to be in the fandom that was. 
> 
> Enjoy!~

After the war is over, there's no date the paladins look forward to more than what the Voltron Coalition has dubbed Celestial Peace Quintant. 

It's not that they're so vain as to relish an entire quintant of songs & performances eulogizing their final triumph over the Galra. If anything, Lance and Coran are the only ones who don't feel wildly embarrassed by the whole production, especially once Bii-Boh-Bi gets involved.

What the team really treasures is the after party. With the excuse of an intergalactic holiday and mandatory appearances, the entirety of Team Voltron is able to escape the duties of their day jobs and finally come together to relax.

That's the thing they don't tell you about growing up. There's never enough time for friends.

Not that they don't meet regularly. The bonds between them and their lions are tethers that span across any number of galaxies and constantly tug them back in. Hunk and Pidge are in and out of the Atlas all the time, working to learn about as much tech and culture as they can. They help on specialized missions or catch rides to distant galaxies for outreach programs of their own. And even when they can’t be there in person, it takes the Holt kids just a handful of phoebs to drastically improve intergalactic communication tech, especially with the help of the Olkari. Within half a decaphoeb of the war’s official end, the entire team is outfitted with new and improved datapads with advanced video communication programs (which Lance, predictably, dubs Space Skype. Keith is the only one who finds this funny.)

Allura and Lance don't often have opportunity to leave New Altea in person after the end of the war and their subsequent wedding, but they're castle is a mandatory stop on all intergalactic trips the Atlas takes, and the Garrison (begrudgingly) trades off hosting rights with New Altea for various Coalition councils and events. 

Shiro and Keith also make frequent contact with the Holts through the Atlas, both for official Garrison and Coalition work and for what Matt affectionately calls family reunions, which generally amount to dinner and a movie in the depths of space.

(That Keith's family extends beyond himself, his mother, his dog, and Shiro is still an overwhelming thought some days. It's too good. More than he'd ever expected, before Voltron. But he cherishes it deep in his heart.)

The trouble in getting everyone to meet up in person comes in finding a time when all 7 members of Team Voltron are free simultaneously. There's accounting for different solar systems, the speed of travel, the delay in messages that even the most advanced Pidge Holt modifications of Olkari tech can't quite overcome. Not to mention their work -- they aren’t quite as on their toes as when Voltron was actively battling, but the humanitarian and outreach programs each member spearheads are expansive and debatably overambitious compared to the manpower they have available, and most weeks it’s difficult to even align Shiro and Keith’s days off, let alone the entire team’s.

CPQ is the one quintant set aside just for them, a guarantee amidst the nebulous attempts at plans and get togethers, and they use it to its fullest extent.

This year, that extent is to be curled up on the ridiculously plush cushions of the castle of New Altea's private reception hall, which Lance insists should be renamed the Lion's Den, given they're the only ones who use it.

New Altea hosts the festivities this year, technically because the return of the Altean monarchy -- and people -- is symbolic of the Galra Empire’s downfall, but mostly because baby Alfora isn't big enough for teludav travel. She watches her aunt & uncles now with big blue eyes from where she bounces in Lance's lap, little white curls pinned up with the sweetest dolphin hair barrette -- a belated birthday gift from Hunk. 

As Allura glides back into the room from putting little Melenie to bed, Hunk snags a cookie from the center table and says, "We should play a game."

"Oh, I love games," Allura sighs, settling down beside her husband and offering the baby a finger to curl her little hand around. 

"What kind of game are we talking?" Pidge asks. She snatches up two cookies from the pile.

"Greedy," Lance teases. 

Pidge sticks out her tongue. "It's my birthday." 

"Your birthday was a phoeb and a half ago!" 

Pidge crams both cookies in her mouth and scrunches her nose up at him.

"Okay, okay. I was thinking like, like Truth or Dare or something," Hunk says. 

"Like at a sleepover?" Shiro asks. 

Keith leans closer to him and mumbles, "I've never been to a sleepover," while Hunk nods. 

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean, we've got a pillow fort and everything."

Shiro winds his arm around Keith's waist and runs it gently up and down his side. "It's really not any different than what we do here." 

Keith watches Lance fling a crumbled chunk of cookie at Pidge and cocks and eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

"How do we play?" Allura asks. The way she leans forward, eyes eager and brows set in a determined line, already spells trouble for someone tonight.

But Keith feels too warm from the Altean drinks they've shared -- (It turns out there are other drinks besides Nunvil, and some of them are actually tasty) -- and the feeling of being here with everyone once again to worry about it.

Maybe Matt's onto something with that Family Reunion stuff.

Hunk explains the rules while Pidge and Lance get into some kind of staring contest, each pulling stranger and stranger faces to try and make the other break.

Keith settles into the warmth of Shiro's side and sighs, content where he is. He lets his eyelids lazily droop and hums at the tickling buzz in Shiro's chest as he chuckles.

Thick knuckles tenderly trace over each of Keith's ribs. "Sleepy?" Shiro hums. 

Keith stretches up like a cat until his boyfriend presses a soft kiss to the top of his head. "Just comfy."

"Hey, stop making gaga eyes over there!" 

Keith mourns the loss of Shiro's head nestled against his as Shiro turns to face the accusing finger Lance is pointing at them.

"You're literally cradling yours and Allura's second child," Shiro says deadpan. Baby Alfora kicks out and tugs on her mother's hand until Lance bounces her over to his other knee. 

"Yeah, but I'm not like, making out with her." 

"Neither are we," Keith grumbles.

"Only because I stopped you."

Another day, Keith would snap back, but he's too lulled right now to find it worth the effort. Lance's pestering feels like home by now anyway. It wasn't until the team took a step away to pursue their own means of repairing the galaxies that Keith realized how much he'd miss it.

"Is that squabbling I hear?" Coran steps into the room, looking a little disheveled but grinning so wide it nearly dwarfs his moustache. His eyes shimmer with a dazzling brightness as they sweep over the room, taking in each of his beloved paladins one by one.

Baby Alfora reaches grabbing fingers out toward him, and Keith can see the way it melts the older man's already warm heart. 

"Yeah, you wanna see Uncle Coran?" Lance coos. The baby squeals as she's lifted up in the air and carried over to New Altea's most trusted advisor.

The group is quiet for once, watching with brimming hearts as Coran cradles the tiny child and looks at her like she's made of the stars themselves.

"You're her favorite person," Allura says softly. 

Coran sniffles and smiles at the baby tugging on his facial hair. "Don't tell anyone," he coos to her, "but you're my favorite too."

It’s moments like this that remind Keith of just how much they’ve worked to rebuild. It’s easy to think of the universe as a collection of rocks, to forget just how big a planet is when seen from the view port of a mechanical lion. But down here, seeing new life sprouting in a universe divested of the horrors they spent so many years fighting off, it sinks in just how much bigger than all of them this is.

Keith smiles softly and leans further into Shiro. He curls his hand over Shiro's where it rests against his ribs and laces their fingers together. There’s this, too. His own personal universe he fought so hard to save.

"Well," Coran says a little wettly. He struggles to tear his eyes away from the little princess. "Don't let us ruin your bickering, hm? What was it this time?" 

"We were planning on playing an Earth game," Allura says brightly. Coran nearly bounces with excitement.

"Magnificent! I'd love the chance to brush up on my Earthling culture. You know, I think I've been getting a little rusty since the war ended. Is it still unacceptable to comment on an Earth woman's weight?"

"Uh yup, that's still a big no." Hunk shifts on his big cushion and pats the space he's made for Coran to come sit and join them.

"So are we all playing?" Pidge asks. Keith watches her snag another pair of cookies under the cover of her long sleeves while Lance is distracted by something Allura whispers in his ear.

Keith snorts. "If anyone's making gaga eyes it's him," he says lowly. The rumble of Shiro's chuckle makes Keith's heart flutter like a bird.

"It's no fun if it's not everyone," Hunk says. He frowns though and scratches his chin. He's started growing a little stubble lately. It looks good, though Keith kind of wonders what Shay thinks.

Of course, he loves the scritch of Shiro's 5'o'clock shadow against his skin, so maybe it doesn't bother her too much.

"The only thing is figuring out turns," Hunk mumbles. Behind him, Allura begins to explain the game to Coran.

"In the Garrison we'd just spin an empty bottle," Shiro offers. "I guess that works."

Pidge's eyes narrow, flashing sharp and scrutinizing at Shiro. "Empty bottle of  _ what _ , exactly?" 

"Soda," Shiro says briskly. Keith can hear the grin he’s barely biting back and he snorts. The Garrison’s golden boy would  _ never _ drink alcohol in the dorms, surely, Shiro’s batting eyelashes say. 

"Uh huh.” Pidge cocks a brow, buying none of Shiro’s bullshit. 

Even still, Shiro puts a hand over his heart and fakes a scandalized expression. "Are you implying I would ever break Garrison regulations?"

Pidge gives him a Look and doesn't dignify that with an answer. She and Keith have of course both heard first hand from Matt just what exactly the Garrison's finest got up to after hours, after all. Keith's not convinced there's a regulation Shiro  _ didn't _ break.

Lance reaches over and plants his empty bottle of alien champagne on the table, shifting the tray of cookies out of the way as he says, “We can use mine.” He gives Pidge a pointed look as the cookies are herded farther away from her, but she looks him dead in the eye and stretches bodily across the table to take as many as she damn well pleases. 

It’s some kind of pseudo-sibling rivalry thing, Keith thinks, but he really doesn’t get it. 

"Alright, who's first then?" Coran asks eagerly. Hunk hums in thought.

"We could rock paper scissors," Keith offers. 

Pidge cocks a brow at him. "There are seven of us." 

"What, you never did multiplayer rps?" Lance asks. "That's like, the only way we ever decided who got leftover desserts in my house. Marco always won -- I swear he's psychic."

"It's not that hard when you always throw paper," Hunk stage whispers. 

"Dude!" 

"It's not a secret technique, man." 

"Just shut up and throw!" 

"Wait, do we go on three, or on shoot?" 

"On shoot." 

"On three." 

"No, Coran, not yet!"

It takes a lot more coordination than it should before they finally work out who's starting. As much as Keith enjoys wrapping himself in Shiro's warmth, he shifts away so the two of them are distinguishable from one another when the bottle is spun.

Pidge sets it in motion as the first player, and while they watch the bottleneck whirl around, Shiro says, "You know we could have just used this to pick who starts." 

"Too late," Pidge hums. The bottle stops on Coran. "Truth or Dare, Coran?" 

Coran crosses his arms and gives her a smug grin. "I think you'll find I am quite daring." 

Unphased, she says, "Okay, I dare you to drink one of those god awful Blade drinks Keith makes." 

"Jesus, Pidge, are you trying to kill someone?" Lance groans.

Keith makes a face at them. "I don't get why everyone makes a big deal out of it. It's not any worse than Nunvil." 

Hunk gives him a long pitying look and shakes his head with utter disappointment.

Shiro runs a hand over the small of Keith's back. "I think human taste buds react to it differently," he says gently, but he can't hide the humor in his tone. Keith huffs and leans into the touch. 

"Fine, more for me." 

"And me! I accept your challenge, Number Five!"

"Maybe not while you're holding Alfora." Lance scoops up his daughter, who starts to fuss as she's pulled away from Coran, while Keith gets up and goes to make the drink.

When he comes back, they watch Coran's face as he downs the drink and sits with his chest puffed out. His proud face slowly scrunches up like he'd taken a full bite of a lemon. Then it starts to turn red, heat spreading as the spice kicks in. He lasts maybe 2 dobashes before he breaks and darts off to find something,  _ anything _ , to wash the drink away. 

Hunk gives Keith a pointed look and says, "See? It's a nightmare, dude. I don't know how you drink that stuff." 

Keith shrugs. "It's not that bad."

The night continues. Coran dares Lance to love Allura forever, which is easy enough. Lance starts a fight by daring Pidge to stop eating all the cookies. Pidge gets Allura to sing the Altean alphabet backwards & half the group groans as the terrible song gets stuck in their heads.

Allura asks Shiro about his first love, which captures the attention of most of the group even though it isn't anything spectacular.

Keith's heard the story before, of course, about the young man who made Shiro realize he was gay. It was an early teenage fling that fizzled out fast, but the team coos until Shiro's ducking his head, ears turning pink.

They detour then to explain the Earth culture revolving around sexuality to the Alteans and wind up breaking for more drinks. Keith spots Pidge cheating on her dare with Lance and snorts.

After another round of drinks, the giant floor cushions of the Lion's Den feel plusher than ever. Keith sighs and snuggles up against Kosmo who's come looking for a cozy place to rest his head. Keith could fall asleep here easily.

It's probably the equivalent of two in the morning by now. Even Alfora has finally fallen asleep, her little fingers curled up in Lance's shirt.

"Childhood insomnia is common for Altean children with magical inclinations," Allura explains. "So much energy can be overwhelming for one so young." 

"Should we move her?" Shiro asks. 

Lance shakes his head. "She wakes up when I lay her down. As long as we're quiet it's fine."

It's Shiro's spin. He smiles soft and warm when the bottle points to Keith and dares him into a kiss. 

"That's gross and it's cheating," Lance complains. 

"Fine," Keith says when his spin lands on Allura. "I dare Allura to kiss you." 

That shuts him up.

Allura's spin lands on Pidge, whom she dares to kiss Hunk on the cheek, and suddenly the game devolves into drunken excuses for physical affection. Back and forth people ‘dare’ each other into hugs and cuddles instead of just asking for them like normal people, and it starts to get overwhelming for Keith. He slumps down to lean against Kosmo and hides in his fur until Hunk calls his name.

"Truth or Dare, Keith?" 

"Truth." Anything to end the ridiculous turn this game has taken.

"Oh." Hunk's face falls a little. He hums and thinks for a long moment, clearly thrown off. "Hmm. I'm not really good at this game, actually. Uhh. Okay, okay." His eyes light up. "How about, what was the best year of your life?"

Lance snorts. "Come on, isn't that an obvious one?" 

"What? No it's not." 

"It's gotta be the year we won the war, dude." 

Coran nods enthusiastically beside Hunk. "Of course, of course. After all, we still celebrate to this very day."

Keith runs his fingers through Kosmo's mane and considers it, but it doesn't compare to the time that immediately came to mind when Hunk asked him. Nothing does.

"Are we doing calendar years, or just any span of twelve months?" Pidge asks. 

"Hmm, either I guess," Hunk hums. 

"What is a month?" Allura tilts her head.

Lance answers, "It's like a phoeb. I think they're shorter though."

"So Keith?" Hunk asks. 

Keith looks up. "You remember our first year in space?" 

"What??" Lance yelps. Allura shushes him and strokes their sleeping daughter's hair. 

"Really? That's what you you're gonna go with?" Pidge gives him a skeptical look, but Keith nods firmly.

"But like, you hadn't even met your mom yet," Hunk says. 

"Nor begun your missions with the Blades," Allura adds. 

"Didn't we lose Shiro at the end of that year?" Pidge asks quietly.

All their eyes turn to him. Keith doesn't see why this is such a shock to them. But even Shiro asks, "Why that year, Keith?" 

Keith meets his eyes. "That's the year I found you. In the desert, after Kerberos."

The team goes quiet. Keith looks around and sees them all staring at him with different expressions. Hunk looks like he did just before he started crying at Lance and Allura's wedding. Pidge looks like she wants to give him her condolences.

Lance for once is speechless, and the Alteans have different confused expressions, lacking the context of the Kerberos Failure to understand the weight it had on him.

Shiro is giving Keith a look he hasn’t seen since they pulled his soul from the Black Lion. Something that could either be guilt or awe. He's the only one to speak. 

"You've saved me over and over again. Why that time?"

Keith shrugs. He doesn't know how to capture that feeling in words. The way it felt to go from utter helplessness for five months to suddenly having the man he loved right at his fingertips. It was like being reborn, and suddenly his life had a sure and clear purpose again, thanks to Voltron. 

"Why not..." Shiro's voice is soft, almost fragile. He swallows, and Keith reaches out to set a hand on his knee. "Why not the clone facility?" 

It is guilt.

All this time, but that's one scar that has yet to heal over. 

The others watch him closely, and Keith supposes the question makes sense to them. That was the closest they’d ever come to losing Shiro, after all. 

But there was a level of surety, of finality to the clone facility fight. It was nothing like the hell of isolation and not knowing that stretched the span of Keith’s first year without Shiro. 

"That was... I already knew what was going to happen. I already knew I would save you then, because I'd done it so many times before. Because I saw flashes of it, in the temporal rift with my mom. Because I already promised you." 

Keith watches the light in Shiro's eyes shift, becoming so delicately soft and tender. He brushes his hand over Keith's, and Keith turns it to lace their fingers together automatically. He will always be here for Shiro. That’s what that fight meant to him. "As many times as it takes," Shiro echoes the words he said so long ago now.

Finding Shiro in the heart of the desert after living alone in what felt like an endless void, empty and incomplete… That night, Shiro came back from the dead, and Keith was reborn.

“We saved each other,” Keith murmurs. He leans up and watches through half lidded eyes as Shiro is drawn in, each pulled by the other’s force of gravity. Like orbiting stars, tied together and intrinsically linked.

Someone clears their throat, and Keith remembers suddenly they aren't alone. He turns back to the group, feeling heat lick across his face, but half of them are avoiding eye contact now anyway. "It's uh, I guess it's your turn then, Keith?" Hunk says. 

"Right.” He clears his throat and spins the bottle a little too harshly. It shudders and rolls off the table, clattering to the floor and rolling between Kosmo’s paws. 

The great wolf snags it between his jaws and disappears in a flash of ozone.

“Welp. Uh. Game over?” Hunk asks.

Coran straightens up with a proud grin. “I think that means I win!”

There’s chatter as the team asks how one even wins truth or dare, but Keith tunes them out, leaning back into Shiro’s space now that they’re distracted. Shiro takes his face in his hands and presses a slow, gentle, intimate kiss to Keith’s lips, pouring himself into the tender motion and holding Keith with such delicateness he could cry. 

Keith doesn’t know what possesses him, but as they pull away, he asks, “What about you? What was your best year?”

Shiro smiles, eyes soft. “The year you and Allura brought me back.”

That makes sense. “It was a relief to be with us again, yeah?”

But Shiro shakes his head. “It was a relief to finally say ‘I love you’ back.”

And maybe it’s the drinks, or the festivities, or the fact that it’s well past their usual sleeping hours, but Keith can’t help but cry a little and drag Shiro down for another achingly tender kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Coran then subjects them all to a game of Altean Monopoly, which is like Earth monopoly but with even more angry yelling.
> 
> (And so grows my collection of sheith fics whose one word titles start with R. Seriously this is like the fourth one.)
> 
> Catch more half-finished fic threads that may or may not get cleaned up later on my twitter, [@maplmoosemuffin](https://twitter.com/maplmoosemuffin). Or just come say hi. <3


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